Sharing is caring!

Today I have an incredibly easy DIY abstract art tutorial. You may be thinking, “that looks like a toddler drew it…” and if so, that’s a huge compliment and thank you so much! 😉

No, but in all seriousness, abstract art can be expensive.

And again in all seriousness, abstract art can also look kind of amazing. Here’s a couple of the images that inspired my DIY abstract art quest.

Photo by me at HPMKT ’18 (See more HPMKT photos here)

Photo Credit: A Thoughtful Eye

When I started searching for abstract art I could buy, my Instagram friends were like, “But like, really, my toddler could draw that.” 

Noted.

So, instead I re-shifted my focus to finding frames large enough to fill the space flanking my windows in the living room. I wanted them to be gold (obvi!), have a large white mat, fit an 11×14 piece of art and not break the bank.

I love having a beautifully decorated house; I hate spending money. Those two convictions are always fighting one another.

I found these simple, affordable gold frames for about $15 each and purchased six of them total.

Here’s a close-up picture of the same frame from another project.

Once I had the frames, the rest was pretty easy and again, totally on the cheap! I’ll admit I had a few trial and errors to work through.

Initially, I really wanted to use paint and a thin brush, but that wasn’t giving me the look I wanted. Then I tried a regular marker…also a nope. Finally, I tried a chisel tip paint marker, and BINGO. I was in business.

If you’re like, nope, not doing this, and just want to download some you can print and frame yourself, I scanned a few of my best toddler abstract art, which you can download here. They’re an 8×10 size.

DIY Abstract Art Tutorial

Active Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $10

Toddler art has never looked so good.

Print

Materials

• 11x14 Sketch Pad (with perforations for easy removal)
• Chisel Tip Black Paint Marker (or any color you choose)
• Pencil with Eraser

Instructions

I tried several different markers and paints/brushes, and I feel the one that resulted in the best overall look and had the darkest pigmentation was a chisel tip paint marker. Walmart has these in the craft section for under $5, as does Amazon.

I do not advocate directly copying an artist's work, but it is helpful to have a few abstract art examples on hand to draw your inspiration from. I had them saved to my phone.

TUTORIAL

1. Using your pencil, draw a random, imperfect design on your paper. But truthfully, don't overthink this part! Take a second to look at it. Feel free to add, remove and erase until it's just the way you want it.

2. Put a piece of cardstock or thicker paper under your drawing to ensure the paint from the next few steps doesn't seep through to the other blank pages.

3. Using your chisel tip paint marker, lightly and imperfectly trace your design. Embrace the bumps, ridges and streaks that may happen, but try not to smudge your design by rubbing your hand over it. The point of this step is to lay the foundation for thickening up the design in the next step.

4. The next step is thickening up the design. My approach was to make some parts thicker and ensuring the edges weren't smooth/perfect- you want this to look organic and imperfect.

5. Once you're all done and happy, feel free to add more to your design. Let it dry for about 5-10 minutes before removing it from your sketch pad and placing it into your frame of choice.

Repeat as needed for as many art pieces as you need. There were some I just hated and scrapped, so overall I think I made 10 and ended up using six.

Notes

No toddlers were used or harmed in the making of this art.

DIY Gallery Wall

I love how it looks in my home, and it pleases my symmetrical loving heart by having three BIG frames flanking my windows. You can see more of my living room spring decor here.

The least expensive abstract art I had found that I liked would have come in to the tune of about $140 EACH, and I knocked out six of these DIY abstract art pieces for my gallery walls for around $100 all in. I still have a ton of sheets left, so I will definitely be DIY-ing some more art in the future.

This is totally not a time consuming project, and if you want to amp it up a bit you could also add in some gold leaf gilding accents, use multiple paint colors or use an eclectic mix of frames. Another option would be to use black paper and white/metallic paint markers if you want something a bit more dramatic/bold.

And with that, I hope you have a fabulous weekend and day! Here’s one more picture because I can’t ever resist putting just one more photo into a post. xo. 

If you have questions, drop them in the comments or shoot me an email. 🙂